The Never-Too-Late Tattoo Parlor

Training
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Print: Thanks for the encouragement. I’m still learning when it comes to this strength training business. Bad days are tough pills for me to swallow. I aim to own the weight. I have the mindset that having pulled 265 twice before I should be able to pull it any damn day that I want to. Sucks that it doesn’t work like that. Or that it didn’t work like that today.

Mim: They’re my husband’s socks. I like to steal them. And they’re not cute, but they are super cushy and cozy. I think I’m living in the only area of the US that is unseasonably cool. Where the fuck is summer?

Alexus: Yes you’re exactly right about the high beam. It takes some getting used to, but the confidence comes and the height of the beam really becomes incidental.

Snap: Glad to read that Greer is getting lots of reps in on the low beam. She’ll get over that fear soon I’m sure. I love DLing, and a good day DLing can right most wrongs in my book. Okay maybe that’s an overstatement. The weight was just heavy today. I’ll get over it. Pullups are my priority. That’s unfinished business.

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So, I went back and did my HLRs and damn near suffered a little death–took me 2 sets of 25 and about 2 minutes for those of you interested in such things.

I’ve decided to prioritize the pullups, which means HLR are going to start geting a lot of love in my log.

Video of my first set of 25: This first set is “kipping.” These engage the back more. And I enjoy these. They’re fun.

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Second set of 25. Trying to keep a dead hang. These also fried my forearms. I had a popeye pump going on.

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These are the remainder of the HLR variations that I play with. These tend to be more difficult for me and I practice them less.

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damn you have some grip strength. if i tried to do those, they would kick me out of the gym. lol

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Pretty amazing, and that grip strength truly is phenomenal

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Now that’s what I call a tungsten core. I have trouble getting my legs to parallel, let alone all the way up to the bar. Can you do dragon flags?

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On some deadlift days, the barbell seems stuck to the floor with superglue. It will be better next time.

These last videos reminded me to put HLRs on my vacation lifting list of things to do.

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Thanks Koubanator!

Cal, I never tried a dragon fly. I had to search for it on youtube. Maybe I’ll give it a shot tomorrow. I can see that it will be a difficult exercise not to cheat on.

Hi Owlie and thanks.

Kimba: YOur vacation plans sound awesome–with or without the addition of HLRs!
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Training:

Yesterday: PM 5 mile run (felt good), stretching, handstand work.

Today: 5 mile run, stretching, handstand work. And I got my period. It’s a good week early. Hello 40? Thank you healthy whole foods diet? WTF body where’s the love? Anyway, I suppose that explains my general feeling of malaise last week. But, this means I survived PMS, a stressful week of work , and a bad deadlift day all without chocolate. I don’t recognize myself.

This week is my 5-3-1 week. And on the rag it will be. Sunday, bloody benching tomorrow. Now that I’m so fucking light, I could be really close to a BW bench or I could be really weak. I love a mystery. I’m excited and ready for tomorrow.

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That happened to me not long ago. I’m not on the Pill so sometimes my cycle can get out of whack. I just put it down to age.

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Despite all my crappy health stuff I’ve always been like clockwork.

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Ah but sugar, you are not yet middle aged. Hormones get pretty screwy once you’re past 40.

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And to think five HPRs at full ROM is challenging for me.

Ah well. We all have our strengths. Good luck on the benching today.

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Mim and Cal: Age is what I figured too. Another sign I’m getting older. Sigh. Just what I need.

Snap: You’ll be able to tack on reps pretty quickly I suspect. Just allow yourself to cheat a little when you have to… bend your legs more, swing a little…whatever. Get em first, then clean them up. You can see my form breaking down through my sets.

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5-3-1 Bench

Barx8
65x5
85x5
92.5x3
102.5x4 (+1 rep pr). I was probably good for another rep or two, but I held back, in the name of my planned heavy singles.

Rows
Bar x8
65x5
85x5
95x5x3

Heavy singles:
110x1
115x1
120x0x two attempts.

First attempt. MISS. I struggled to unrack the weight—guess my set up was bad. It probably would have been wise to get up and reset completely, but no I didn’t do that. Forge on I say.

Second attempt. Hoped my belt would help. Good job unracking, but still no good. Had to take the belt off to sneak out from under the weight. Oops.

Sometimes I think I would really benefit from some adult supervision in the gym…Seriously, I’m totally training like a douche bag right now. Heavy singles have become monthly max effort attempts to failure. I don’t think that’s what Jim Wendler meant by heavy singles or I suspect he would have said try to set a new one rep max every month and be sure to go to failure.

I need to stop testing and focus my efforts on training.

HLRs kipping 15x2; Deadhangish 15x2. My abs are sore.

Bench BBB 65x10x2; 75x10x3

And because I’m serious about the 25 pullups, and 25 is a big number that takes some getting used to, I did

Bench: bar x25
Barbell row: Barx25

Damn!

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Awesome benching (even if it wasn’t what the doctor prescribed). You are pretty damned strong.

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in my unprofessional benching eye, I think if your elbows were tucked more and you were ‘pulling,’ the bar towards you, you woulda had it.

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[photo]33628[/photo]

In ideal lighting conditions I can see my abs, but they still don’t photograph particularly well even under the harshness of flourescents. This is week 2. BW still 120, but I expect to see that drop next week because my rings are tight right now.

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Thanks Cal.

I see what you’re saying mim. I didn’t realize my elbows were out so much. They feel tucked…

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I would be thrilled to have that midsection. But then, with all those freaky leg raises and gymnastics I’m not surprised you have an awesome core.

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yeah nice benching! damn you are bendy. i’m working on my arch, but still got a lot of work to do, heh. i thought you were squashed for a minute there, then realized you set the safeties up.

I have the mindset that having pulled 265 twice before I should be able to pull it any damn day that I want to.

i have that mindset, too. really pisses me off when there is a day i can’t do something that i’ve done before. really, really sucks.

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[quote]Nadia Comeandeat wrote:

I need to stop testing and focus my efforts on training.

[/quote]

I was in the same rut a few months back. Didn’t add much to my max for 6 months. Once I focused on adding reps to the 85-95% the weights shot up.

stomach looks really fly!